Kevin Henderson | Winger

Latest News

Recent News

Henderson's deal will pay him the league-minimum $550,000 at the NHL level. He spent most of the 2013 season in the AHL, registering 17 goals and 29 points in 67 games with the Milwaukee Admirals. Henderson also had one goal in four games with the Predators. Tue, Jun 18, 2013 03:34:00 PM

Depth Charts

The Nashville Predators know that they will eventually have to replace their two aging centers.

The Predators have Mike Ribeiro and Mike Fisher who are both 35-years-old. "We're realistic that we have two 35-year-old centers that we've eventually got to replace, whether that's in two years, three years," Predators general manager David Poile said. "I said to both of them, 'I hope you play a lot longer than that.' But you just never know when Father Time catches (up to you)." Both players were productive last season and the Predators will need them to keep producing if they want to make the playoffs again in 2015-16. Fisher finished with 19 goals and 39 points in just 59 games, while Ribeiro scored 15 goals and 62 points in 82 games.

The Nashville Predators have signed Mike Fisher a two-year, $8.8 million contract extension.

That represents a mild raise over his previous two-year, $8.4 million deal. Fisher had 19 goals and 39 points in 59 contests in 2014-15. He didn't make his season debut in 2014-15 until Nov. 27 due to a Achilles injury. He turned 35 years old on June 5.

Paul Gaustad collected 12 PIMs in Thursday's 5-2 Game Five win over Chicago.

Gaustad went above and beyond his series total of penalty minutes all in one fell swoop, picking up a roughing minor and a 10 minute misconduct after a skirmish with Andrew Shaw. However, Gaustad still has no points this series and with 22 PIMs.

Colin Wilson has signed a four-year, $15.75 million deal with the Nashville Predators.

Wilson was set to have an arbitration hearing on Tuesday, but this deal makes it moot. He had requested a $4.25 million payday from the arbitrator while Nashville had countered at $3 million. This deal obviously leans more towards Wilson's request than Nashville's, but the Predators must feel that's a fair trade off to lock him up for a longer term. He'll turn 26 in October and is coming off of a season where he scored 20 goals and 42 points in 77 games.

Cody Hodgson described his 2014-15 campaign as a "disaster of a season by all accounts."

Hodgson had just six goals and 13 points in 78 games with the Buffalo Sabres last season. That led to Buffalo buying out the final four seasons of his six-year, $25.5 million deal. Hodgson signed a far more modest one-year, $1.05 million contract with Nashville in the hopes of bouncing back. He can look to what Mike Ribeiro did as inspiration as Ribeiro joined the Predators under similar circumstances for 2014-15 and enjoyed a comeback season. "Hopefully, I can do what he did. It's a new opportunity for me like it was for him," said Hodgson.

Kevin Fiala chances of making the Nashville Predators have improved now that they've traded Taylor Beck to Toronto.

That opens up a bottom-six roster spot that, barring another move, will be fought over during training camp. Fiala split the 2014-15 campaign primarily between the Swedish league and AHL, but he also made his NHL debut. He's someone worth keeping an eye on during training camp.

The Nashville Predators will look to complete contract extensions with both Filip Forsberg and Seth Jones in the near future.

Both players are key pieces of Nashville's team and they are scheduled to become Restricted Free-Agents after the 2015-16 season. "It's something that we'll probably engage, have some conversations as we get closer to training camp," General Manager David Poile said. "In my mind, I think the relationships are good with the players and the agents. When we (find) the opportune time to move forward with something, whether that's later in the summer or more probably during the season next year, we will try to (find) the correct time to do that."

James Neal gave Nashville a 2-0 lead in the first period but the Predators wound up losing 4-3 to the Blackhawks in Chicago Saturday night.

With the loss, the Preds were eliminated from the Western Conference First Round playoff series. The Hawks took the series in six games. But it wasn't easy. Neal gave the Preds high hopes of tying the series at 3-3 when he scored his third and fourth goals of the post-season at 1:10 and 8:09 of the first period. Matt Cullen, with his only goal of the playoffs, made it 3-1 for Nashville in the first period. The Hawks would tie it up 3-3 before the period, though, and won the game and the series on a Duncan Keith slap shot late in the third. Neal finished the series with four goals after failing to pick up a point in the first three games.

It sounds like there aren't any hard feelings over the things said in Craig Smith's arbitration hearing.

Smith agreed to a five-year, $21.25 million contract with the Nashville Predators, but that contract was inked after the arbitration hearing, but before the judgment. Typically meeting with an arbitrator is seen as undesirable because it puts the team in a position to criticize the player's abilities in front of said player. On that Smith said, "I'm my worst critic. ... I've probably said worse things (about) myself than what I heard (in) there." Of course, the fact that he made a long-term commitment with the Predators after the hearing is a good indicator that he's still happy with the franchise.

Steve Moses has agreed to a one-year, $1 million contract with the Nashville Predators.

The deal is for the 2015-16 campaign. Moss had 36 goals and 57 points in 60 KHL games in 2014-15. He was born in Massachusetts and played for the University of New Hampshire, but after playing in eight AHL games, he moved to Jokerit Helsinki for the 2012-13 campaign. He spent three seasons in Europe before signing with Nashville.

Shea Weber doesn't believe his regular off-season training will be impacted by his rehab from knee surgery.

"I spend a lot of time in the gym every day during the week," Weber said. "I'll go in there and work out and obviously try to improve on weaknesses and also improve on some of my strengths. ... I can't do as much lower-body right now, but I'm still doing cardiovascular stuff, like I still ride the bike, use the rowing machine and stair stepper and all that stuff." He is progressing well from a dislocated kneecap and expects to be ready for training camp.

Roman Josi, who put together a terrific 55-point campaign in 2014-15, praised his assistant coach Phil Housley for the wisdom he's passed on to the Predators' defense core.

"He’s one of the best defenseman of all-time, and having a guy like that coach you is definitely great," Josi said of Housley, who notched 1232 points during his storied career between 1982-2003. "(Housley) knows what to do in different situations and he’s been teaching us a lot. He talks to us a lot and it’s helpful, especially for young guys. You want to get better and you want to learn from guys like him."

Seth Jones will be living on his own for the first time since being drafted into the NHL.

After he was drafted, Jones' mom thought it would be best for her to move to Nashville with her son, and they have lived together for the first two years of his career. "It helped me a lot," Jones said of his prior living arrangements. "I think made it a lot easier. Sometimes you don't want to live at home with your mom, but sometimes you have to and that's kind of how it was."

Expect Ryan Ellis and Cody Franson to get more power play time while Shea Weber (leg) is out of the lineup.

Ellis already plays on Nashville's second power play unit, but he will likely see an increase in minutes because of Weber's injury. Franson, who was acquired from Toronto earlier this season, hasn't really panned out in Nashville but he should have more opportunities to produce from the backend now. The Preds will need all six of their defensemen to step up their game if they want to have a chance to win their series against Chicago.

Mattias Ekholm scored a beauty of a goal from his butt, opening Tuesday night's scoring on Carey Price of Montreal. The Predators would go on to win 3-2 in overtime.

Mid way through the first period, Ekholm intercepted a blind Tomas Plekanec clearance in-stride and proceeded to bum-rush the Canadiens' net. He utilized a roller hockey move to split the defense and scored on his own rebound from his butt. Go find a highlight. It was his first goal since Jan. 17th, a span of 28 games, and he now has six goals and 16 points this season.

Victor Bartley was in the lineup for Nashville on Sunday against Chicago.

It marked his first career appearance in the NHL playoffs. Bartely got to play because of Shea Weber's lower-body injury and he was paired with Cody Franson in Nashville's 4-2 loss. He finished the game with a minus-1 rating in 9:34 of ice time.

Look for the Predators to limit Pekka Rinne to approximately 60-65 starts in 2015-16.

This according to GM David Poile. Poile wants to make sure they don't overwork Rinne and will urge the coaching staff to start Carter Hutton at least 20 times this upcoming season. Just thought you should know.